Climate Change: Day 21

November 13, 2014

  • Exam 3: Thursday, December 4th (final class period).

  • Exam 4 (optional): Friday, December 12th, 3-5p.

  • Term project due date: Tuesday, December 9th. Email your HTML file to jelsner@fsu.edu.

  • Last time: Improved tornado reports; today: Are tornadoes getting stronger? First volume-rendered tornado simulation.

alt text

alt text

alt text

alt text

Tornado intensity

Moore video from the ground

Moore video from the ground

Moore tornado from dual polarization doppler radar

Damage surveys are still the most reliable way to estimate tornado intensity

alt text

alt text

alt text

EF damage scale

Problem

  • An estimate of how strong a tornado can get requires a continuous scale of intensity.
  • The EF damage scale is categorical.
  • We can count the number of tornadoes by EF category.
  • But a time-series plot of the number of tornadoes by EF category does not answer the question: Are tornadoes getting stronger?

If we solve this problem

alt text

alt text

alt text

alt text

alt text

alt text

alt text

alt text

alt text

alt text

Tornado simulation

T or F: According to recent research by Professor Elsner and his students, the density of tornado reports today near cities is about the same as the density of reports in rural areas.